New Orleans

It's Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans, which means tourists, traffic, king cakes, endless renditions of Mardi Gras Mambo, and (of course) parades. If you're a geek in New Orleans celebrating Mardi Gras and don't go to the Chewbacchus parade, you're doing it wrong. Period. No excuses. Seriously, even Peter Mayhew himself rides in this geek parade.

If you’ve ever read a DC comic, you owe a thank you to Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson for founding the iconic company, and paving the way for the comic book as we know it today. If you’re unfamiliar with his name, I have good news for you: His granddaughter, comic historian and writer Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, is dedicated to preserving the memory of her grandfather and getting his incredible story of comics, publishing, story-telling, and life as an American soldier to the masses.

One of the more popular panel at last weekend’s Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans was a very laid back, casual chat with Caity Lotz (Arrow/The Machine/Mad Men), where she spent the better part of an hour laughing and answering fan questions about everything from her role on Arrow to women in films to LGBT representation in television and comic books. Did you miss it? That’s ok; I’m here for you. I’m magnanimous like that.

I ventured out to New Orleans’ largest geek convention, the 2015 Wizard World Comic Con, last weekend and though the majority of the vendors there were selling t-shirts, figures, posters, and comic art (as is the way with ever large convention), I came across a few small, quirky businesses and independent artists that are certainly worth a mention.

Ooooh!

This past weekend, the New Orleans Convention Center held several events, including an arm wrestling championship and a formal Mardi Gras ball (I even heard a rumor of a barbershop quartet gathering on Saturday). But the event that turned everyone’s head was the 2015 Wizard World Comic Con, where geeks of all ages converged upon the Convention Center in a smorgasbord of colorful costumes and elaborate crafts.

The levees will never break again.

Y'all, it's Mardi Gras. If you can't remember a time it was warm enough to take your top off, it may be hard to sympathize with revelers in Louisiana searching right now for a place to legally relieve their overtaxed bladders. Thankfully, there's an app for those lucky sons of bitches. Or should I say, an a pp? (pee joke, plebs.)

If you need a reason not to mug someone -- and lets face it, all of us do at some point -- this might be a good one:You never know when the person you're mugging might become an action movie-grade badass and snatch the firearm from your hands like he's the dang Batman. I mean, 9 out of 10 times, that's not going to be the case. But man, that tenth time, when the person you're mugging snaps into action, takes your shotgun away from you, and then chases you down the street with it? That has to be embarrassing, right?

If there's one thing folks usually recognize as being important and worth their respect, it's emergency vehicles. If an ambulance or fire engine is careening down the street with its lights on, chances are that the driver is responding to some kind of kerfuffle. It's pretty unlikely that they're just flicking switches because they feel like it. The same goes for when an ambulance is parked with its lights going. That didn't stop one particularly vigilant New Orleans convenient store from booting an ambulance yesterday, though.

From YouTube: "Six Flags New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It has been abandoned ever since. This film was made in October 2010. The park is scheduled to be demolished in January 2011." Spooky stuff.
(BuzzFeed via Flavorwire)